Beautiful, Pretty, Broken
by Claire's Demons
Summary: If they'd only taken a moment, just a few minutes, to look past her mask. If only someone had cared.


**Beautiful, Pretty, Broken**

**If they'd only taken a moment, just a few minutes, to look past her mask. If only someone had cared.**

* * *

_I know I can stop the pain_

_If I will it all away_

_If I will it all away..._

_'Whisper'- Evanescence_

* * *

They all _want _her or want to _be _her.

She glides through the hallways with a refined grace, her voice a gentle lilt, her dark and silky curtains of hair gently tickling the sides of her delicate features.

When she smiles at you, it's as if someone has lit a bright candle in your heart, a happy glow that stays with you for a long time and simply bolsters your day.

There are few boys who can say they were lucky enough to have received the pleasure of some acknowledgement from the paragon, Miss Chang. A wave maybe, or perhaps just some mere eye contact. She is the _one_, that certain special girl that most of them were obsessed with.

There are even less who can boast about having ever successfully courted her.

There is only one who has ever felt the true and soothing balm of her love.

He died. She never got to see him go. She didn't hear his last words. She wasn't there with him when the light of his life flickered out and his eyes became empty.

* * *

They try to offer what shreds of comfort they can. Friends envelope her in their arms and tell her that she's not alone.

She always will be, they just don't know it yet, but she does.

She tries so hard to will it all away, but at night, the shadows are long, and the loneliness slowly poisoned her mind.

She keeps up the pretence. To the world, she is Cho Chang, Quidditch player, one of the most bright pupils to have ever walked the fabled halls of Hogwarts. She is a shining star in a sea of students.

_She will become great one day. So much potential, so much hope. An Auror perhaps, or even better. If she sets her sights high, she won't be disappointed._

Praises have passed her ears so often, she can't even seem to find any meaning in them anymore.

* * *

The girls and boys cluster around her like bees to nectar, or rather, flies to a rotting hank of meat.

They simper and smirk and worship her with their gestures but not their hearts.

Anything for some shred of acknowledgement from the most popular girl in the school, right?

* * *

_She was crying again. In the bathroom, yep. She really should pull her act together._

_Did you see her with Potter? What a pathetic girl. Hanging around with other boys so quickly after the Cedric incident. It's like he never existed. Shameful, shameful, shameful._

_Oh, Merlin, Chang missed the Snitch again. OI CHO! FOCUS! We need to win the Cup this time around! No excuses. STOP MESSING AROUND! You have to do this for us! Don't let us down!_

_Honestly, Miss Chang, the punctuality rate of your essays has been alarmingly low recently. _

* * *

Then there were the select few who took her vulnerability as a ripe time for the pickings. They sneered at her and attacked her with words- thumbed their noses at her, not a care in the world, never understanding the torment she went through on a daily basis.

Who could, really?

* * *

Life flew by meaninglessly and she found herself becoming as empty as her heart felt.

Who really understood her?

* * *

She watched as Potter walked past her without even sparing her a glance back, Ginny at his side. Of course. He'd forgotten all about her and moved on.

He must have thought her pathetic. Always crying, seeking a kiss at that Christmas party. He had his own sad story, of course. But hers was of a different class altogether. And he hadn't cared.

He'd left her too. She'd thought she couldn't feel any worse. She was wrong.

All she'd wanted was someone to seek solace in. Was it too much to ask? What right did Fate have to deny her peace and quiet?

* * *

They all _wanted _her or wanted to _be _her.

She used to glide through the hallways with a refined grace.

She used to offer those serene smiles to a lucky few.

She used to miss Cedric Diggory.

She used to wish that people around her would _stop pretending _to love her.

She used to have so much potential.

She used to have a bright future.

She used to be all that and more, before she slashed her wrist open with a borrowed Muggle knife, before she finally broke.


End file.
